MILTON-FREEWATER — For decades, veterinarians Kelly Kidd and Patrick Kennedy had been unsettled about one sad aspect of their Main Street practice.

Established in March 2000, Kennedy Veterinary Services quickly gained a faithful and robust clientele, based on word-of-mouth advertising and a reputation for meeting pet owners needs.

Competent and compassionate people who could also be flexible staffed the clinic, but quality-of-life for animals always came first.

More than 20 years later it still does and, in some cases that means giving a pet the best death possible.

While everyone at Kennedy’s strove to carry out that mission, the physical realities of being situated in a building more than a century old didn’t suit the need.

Out of a desire to change that, “Soft Landing Veterinary Center” came forth, opening its doors in March as a nod to the practice’s anniversary.

The concept is about making a difficult time as comfortable as possible, according to Kennedy and Kidd, and the entire facility is dedicated to end-of-life counseling and care for pets.

It also contains technology new to this corner of the Pacific Northwest.

Aquamation, or alkaline hydrolysis, is a method of breaking down bodies with water, lye and heat, rather than flame. It’s championed as an effective and environmentally-friendly body disposal method, according to Soft Landing’s literature. Aquamation, patented in 1888, is legal across the United States for animal disposal and in 28 states for human remains.

The process results in crushed bone fragments, or an “ash” that’s returned as desired to the pet owner.

Soft Landing’s address can be measured in feet from Kennedy Veterinary Services clinic, but the atmosphere there speaks of another world.

Crafting peace and solace

Gone is the bustle and bark of a traditional vet clinic. There are no crates in a waiting room filled with anxious pets and their humans, no vet technicians cramming in at desks.

Instead, the public space of Soft Landing speaks of calm.

Soothing music wafts over the reception area housing a wide variety of plants, tasteful furnishings and pet-centric wall art. Kidd built a reception desk that is art, as well, from pallets and other boards, stained in warm and complementary colors.

A selection of steel and aluminum urns is on discrete display. The smallest among them is the size of a salt shaker, suited for the ashes of a ferret or hamster, the veterinarian said.

Two spacious private rooms mimic a grandma’s parlor, adorned with velvet couches, vintage area rugs and curio cabinets, lamps and more plants.

These double as exam rooms, ensuring all procedures can be done in one place, Kidd said.

Soft Landing follows a hospice-style approach; there is space for families and their friends to gather and stay with their pet throughout the end-of-life process, even when that means lying on the floor alongside the animal.

Per long-standing policy, the veterinary clinic euthanizes animals only for terminal illness or suffering that cannot be medically solved.

While it has always been true some pet owners will stay with their pet until the last breath, many did not.

“It’s a personal decision,” Kidd said. “I tell the owner it is up to them. If they are distraught, they are not a big help. The animal can feel it.”

Staff treat animals left alone at the clinic to be euthanized with the same patient, slow process as those attended by their owners, she pointed out.

“But it’s not the same, she said.

To the last breathThat tide has turned as, culturally, pets are being elevated nearly to the status of children. And, more often than not, now a pet is put down in the arms of a family member, Kidd said.

To allow that to happen under the best circumstances requires space and privacy — and those commodities are lacking in the business’s primary setting.

Clinics established in more modern structures might have the luxury of a separate entrance for grieving pet owners, but Kennedy’s does not.

Kidd said the two veterinarians had ongoing discussions around addressing the need, but it was an educational convention in Washington state that provided the impetus to make changes.

There, they spent hours listening to Mary Gardner, co-founder of “Lap of Love” animal hospice care.

Gardner managed to make a heavy topic interesting, easier to absorb, Kidd and Kennedy found.

Lap of Love, founded in 2009, has grown into a nationwide network of more than 300 veterinarians committed to helping owners care for their geriatric pets.

A thoughtful, peaceful death is very often part of that love, Kidd said, and hearing that message at the convention reinspired the Milton-Freewater veterinarians to pursue an answer for their own practice.

From empty to elevatedThey had previously purchased the empty storefront next to the town’s liquor store. This space, the two realized, could be turned into a sanctuary for families who had to say goodbye to a beloved pet, she recalled.

“This was important. These (centers) are not money makers. We could monetize that facility with puppy care, but that’s not what this is about. This needed to be something special.”

Kidd and Kennedy rotate duty at Soft Landing. Thus far, 20 families have taken advantage of the facility and the business owners anticipate the service, along with the aquamation technology, will draw clients from around the region.

No other vet clinic in the area duplicates what Soft Landing offers, but she predicted more folks will begin seeking a thoughtful ending for their pet, Kidd said.

“It’s not our favorite thing to do, by any means,” she said. “However, we both recognize it’s one of the most important things we do. You are ending the suffering of a pet.”

They manage to keep their professional faces on for their families, she added.

“But, good grief, we both have animals we are really bonded to,” Kidd said. “If you are human, you feel it.”